Saturday, July 22, 2006

WITH UNDER graduate admissions in full swing, the Allahabad University (AU) proctorial team has gone on full alert to ensure that the new-comers get a warm but ragging-free welcome on the campus.

Under the new initiative, members of the proctorial team will remain vigilant on all the campuses of the varsity ready to nab any student trying to rag or harass a fresher in the name of "getting an introduction".

AU Proctor Prof Jata Shankar recently held a meeting with all the assistant proctors and chalked out a detailed plan to keep AU free of the ragging menace this year.

"We are determined to keep AU free of ragging this year. For this, assistant proctors will take multiple rounds of the various campuses every day in teams.

They will be backed by varsity's security personnel as well as cops, if needed.

With the current speed of the admissions, we are expecting the new-comers to start coming to the varsity within the next week and it is during this time that we will carry out stricter identity card checking drives to catch outsiders and crack down on anyone who tries to rag a student," informed Prof Jata Shankar.

He said that most of the complaints during the past years have come from the Commerce and the Science faculties.

"It is due to this that we will be keeping a hawk's eye on these two campuses.

The time when certain class rooms and labs are isolated and spots that are usually deserted during teaching hours are being identified so that we can check these out from time to time," he added.

The proctor said that the varsity has decided to initiate exemplary punishments against students who attempt to rag the freshers this time around.

"No offender will be spared and no excuse or plea will be accepted.

We believe that a few rotten apples bring bad name to the entire varsity by their such acts and should be dealt with strictly. This will take care of the trouble-makers and enable all other students to get on with the job of learning and getting educated," he said.